#guys listen i love Issho so much look what i can do--

[sebbyisland]

This chapter was special because we FINALLY got a glimpse of all the Arakawa school drama from the biggest instigator himself!

Before I dive into the most recent chapter, let's do a quick review of what we know about Issho Arakawa, grumpy old man extraordinaire:

he's an asshole.

He had at least two reasons for expelling Shinta/his cohort: preserving Rakugo tradition, AND personal desire to protect the legacy of Shiguma's Art as the technique of a powerful performer, not the weakness that Shinta showed him

He has two distinct personas as a Shinuchi. A relatively polite and respectful old man, which he presents during public events, and a Demon Rakugo Master, which he presents towards members of the Arakawa school that he has acknowledged.

He is kind, despite always being a bit gruff about it. When he paid the hospital bills of a local bartender, he tried to do so anonymously, and even then, only said that he was doing it because she makes a type of drink he likes. In the end, he not only helped support the livelihood of a single mother, but eventually took on her son as a rakugo student.

He's mentored Kaisei with the intention to have a student who can reach his ideals that "break the mold of seniority," aka someone who has become such a master of their craft that they rise up the ranks quickly, built to reach Ookanban status

To better understand Issho, we also need to consider the minor antagonist of the series, Zensho Arakawa. Zensho's behavior was repeatedly out-of-pocket to everyone's chagrin, often comically so, but eventually it was revealed that he was an asshole to cover up his own insecurities. Interestingly, Zensho also acts like an overenthusiastic lackey to Issho Arakawa's Villain, taking on loud and obnoxious methods in the same of preserving Rakugo tradition and honor. His enthusiasm is a bit of a surprise given they don't have much of a relationship. Issho barely even acknowledges Zensho's presence. We never see them directly interact unlike how Issho does with Ikken and Shiguma. This is because Zensho only knows Issho as the Demon Master of the Arakawa school, and this Demon Master identity is just as shallow as the Welcoming Old Man identity that he uses as a front for his interactions with the public/non-competitors. However, whereas Welcoming Old Man Issho is trying to make rakugo seem down-to earth-and pristine to attract new audiences, Demon Master Issho is trying to uphold the rakugo craft as exclusive, the ultimate pinnacle of entertainment, an ancient and illustrious art.

Through the glimpses of Issho in the story, it's apparent that Issho is a bit nasty and intense by default, but as of late, he's reached some pretty extreme levels in the name of his Demon Master schtick. Again, we see Issho reach for impossible standards by telling Maikeru Arakawa he needed to have made every single person in his audience invested, or he's not a real Shinuchi. This speaks to not only Maikeru's skill that such a petty reason cost him Issho’s vote, but Issho's character. Issho is a bit of an asshole for not trying to correct Zensho when he was sabotaging Maikeru's performance, but his colleague Ikken Arakawa mentions that he likely let it all slide because he wanted to test Maikeru's character. In other worse, even though Issho and Zensho are not close by any means, they overall were aiming for the same thing. Both Zensho and Issho were okay with intentionally testing Maikeru's character by rigging his Shinuchi test against him. Zensho pulled the trigger, but Issho didn’t try to treat the wound when he was the only one with the authority to do so smoothly. And then he’s mad Maikeru couldn’t completely jump over a hurdle that shouldn’t have been there in the first place! That's asshole behavior.

However, unlike Issho, who likes to manage a two-faced personality for the sake of his goals, Zensho is honest to a fault. He feels everything intensely and shamelessly, for better or worse. Zensho has some of the most expressive panels in the series! Whether it's grief, anger, annoyance, or self-satisfaction, he does it to the extreme. It's because he has the ability to feel so deeply that he is able to connect with Maikeru's performance despite literally trying to ruin this man's whole career.

Issho is the other side of that same ego. The straight man to Zensho's funny man. He's not concerned with how people respond to him, he's more concerned with how he presents himself to people (remember, this was also his main critique of Shinta)

The problem with Welcoming Old Man Issho is that he hides his true feelings from the public, who are all just wondering when he'll cause another scandal as Demon Master Issho. This actually did the opposite of his intention, which is to increase rakugo appreciation in the modern world. Unlike Shiguma, who has made a reputation by connecting with the locals, Issho formed a reputation by sensationalizing rakugo in a national scandal. He says that he's doing this all for the sake of traditional storytelling, but the consequences of his actions don't line up. This is how the narrative signals to us that the issue with Demon Master Issho is actually much deeper that having giving people the "harsh truth." The biggest problem with Issho's Demon Master persona is that the truly ideal rakugo he clings onto doesn't exist. If it did, it’s dead by now and meant to stay dead. He was warned by Kiroku* himself: This (rakugo) is a graveyard for stories.

I love how the chapter opens up with this glimpse of Kiroku and absolutely no preamble. It's a shock to you, the reader, and no doubt a shock to Issho Arakawa, who is currently being told that within rakugo is a "graveyard" of storytelling art. I choose to interpret his words as referring to rakugo as a whole since we know this exact problem has become Issho's primary anxiety as the Head of the Arakawa school (I want to think we'll get more details behind this conversation in the future but regardless, it's a safe inference that Kiroku's words impact how Issho approaches rakugo). However, as we now know from the current Shiguma Arakawa, there is also a very real grief that weighs on Issho Arakawa to this day: guilt surrounding the death of Kiroku, the former Shiguma Arakawa.

Wow! Imagine being told by your highly esteemed rakugo mentor that you destroyed his legacy while he's on his literal death bed! Cowabummer.

In all seriousness, though, it seems that Kiroku is pointing out that Issho (formerly known as Kisoba Kashiwaya) was not able to honor the kind of rakugo that he held so dear. Does Kiroku hate Issho for this? Issho sure seems to think so, but I wouldn't be so quick to judge. Kiroku's face is obscrued from us, the audience, but also in Issho's memories. This opaqueness implies that there is more to Kiroku's words that maybe Issho was not able to fully grasp, even now.

Regardless of Kiroku's intent, Issho felt incredibly inadequate following Kiroku's passing, to the point that he guards over the legacy of rakugo with an iron first, as if trying to prove something to Kiroku's ghost. In the panels leading up to the scene at Kiroku's death bed, the younger Issho Arakawa is panting with exhaustion, like he just ran a long distance. Kiroku is sick in bed. He's not going anywhere. But Issho ran to him because he values his remaining time with Kiroku immensely, and likely with the urgency of knowing he would pass soon. I wouldn't even be surprised if this was the first time he had spoken to Kiroku in awhile, too, but he was still running when Kiroku called for him. Much like how anyone runs to their love one's sickbed at their call. In other words, even the IMPLICATION that he has failed Kiroku would be utterly devastating.

Issho clings on to his ideals of a "real" rakugoka because as long as he protects those ideals, he can repent for being responsible for killing those ideals by his own hand.

And really, why wouldn't he be his fault?

He was known to have the "eyes of a wild beast baring fangs at it's prey," among previous rakugoka generations. Does that describe someone who can uphold tradition to you? Who is suited to lead an entire rakugo school on his shoulders?

When he had to deal with a stressful reality of his rakugo mentor passing away before his very eyes, he couldn't find it in himself to grin a bear it, care-free, like Shiguma can. He's too caught up in his own grief. He's too selfish, as Urara says. "We can do anything if we work together," Shiguma says, but would he really want to work with someone like Issho? Someone who might as well have killed Shiguma's legacy?

To put it in other terms: Issho's Arakawa’s cut-throat personality, crippling guilt, aloofness, and long-term close relationship with the care-free Shiguma Arakawa who used to happily call him "aniki," all fit him closely into the "shadow/moon themed shonen rival" trope. And what do we all know about shadow rivals (think: Sasuke Uchiha, Katsuki Bakugo, Seto Kaiba)? THEY HAVE PAINFULLY FRAGILE EGOS.

It's become abundantly clear that for as much as Issho talks about how Shinuchi needed to be amazing performers who can prevail under any scenario: Issho Arakawa has the most fragile ego of them all. He is eagerly pushing the next generation to do what he couldn't do for Kiroku. This is what Shiguma Arakawa means when he says Issho Arakawa is "lost in the past."

This isn't to say Issho is 100% doomed. He's a Shinuchi and Head of the Arakawa school for a reason! He didn't just train Kaisei like a showpony, he MENTORED him, he nurtured his fighting spirit in a way other teachers probably wouldn't be able to--because he understands. Furthermore, it's because he wants to honor the name of rakugo that he holds competitions like the "Rookie Cup" in order to bring in fresh new talent and perspectives. As much as I've been calling out Issho, as much as EVERYONE has been dragging on Issho, he is genuinely interested in training a new generation of rakugokas to not just appreciate, but innovate the craft. He's a man who leads because he WANTS to, and not one of his peers would say that he doesn't suit the role. He has just enough ego to make it work.

At the end of the day, it makes complete sense why he would be appointed the head of the Arakawa school instead of the other Shinuchi. Just like how it makes complete sense why Shiguma was the one to carry on the tradition of Shiguma's Art, not Issho. Maybe Issho Arakawa "killed," Kiroku, but he didn’t truly fail him.

I would even go so far as to say that even if Issho "killed" Kiroku, it doesn't mean Kiroku was disappointed in him. We simply don't have enough information to to figure out what, exactly, created tension between Issho and Kiroku. I have a couple of wild guesses, like maybe Issho wanted to refuse becoming the head of the Arakawa school, but Kiroku tried to make sure he would be there as a leader after he passed by telling him "it's okay that you're taking on my title, and it's going to be different. YOU get to lead the Arakawa school. I'm not gonna be there. I'm dead, and you killed me." IDK, that might be a bit too emotional, but I definitely don't think it would make sense to let the student who failed you become the head of the rakugo school YOU founded. It makes more sense if the lesson Issho needs to learn here isn't that he majorly fucked up and needs to spend his whole life atoning, but maybe that the most he can do is carry on Kiroku's memory while also making way for new possibilities. What's done is done. The original Shiguma Arakawa is dead.

Right after we get the flashback of the younger Issho Arakawa getting accused of "killing" Kiroku, we jump back to Issho of the present, muttering the incantation from "Shinigami." Keep in mind, this spell was meant to rescue someone from the brink of death because it "wasn't their time" yet, so to speak. What is linking these two scenes? Death. Specifically, a death that was undeserved (the patients) and/or unfair (the protagonist of the story). I think that Issho mutters the chant while reflecting on Kiroku because he believes the original Shiguma should never have died. Keep in mind, Issho doesn't even know that Shiguma performed "Shinigami" at this point, he hasn't read the news until Ikken shows him in the following page. That means that it was his own rumination that made him think of Shinigami, that made him think of the futility of avoiding death. Something he would only do when he was alone, without anyone else to hear him....

I LOVE the idea of Issho's grief over an unfair death propelling his strict rakugo ideals because it's a direct parallel to the unfair death of Shinta Arakawa, who he explicitly DID single-handedly "kil” in order to protect those same ideals.

If anything, the lesson that the cast has been slowly forced to learn about accepting Shinta’s death is going to be very similar to what Issho eventually must learn in order to resolve the Arakawa school drama. In other words, the original Shiguma is seriously giving Shinta Arakawa some fierce "Haunting the Narrative" competition, and I love that for him.

Issho is truly one of my favorite types of antagonist because his goals are not actually at odds with the protagonist. He's literally just a typical bitter old man like idk what to tell you guys.

*I know his final rakugo title was Shiguma Arakawa but I refer to him as Kiroku (as in Kiroku Kashiwaya) because that makes it easier to differentiate than "former Shiguma" and "current Shiguma"